Port plans materializing in Murmansk

-The signalled establishment of a special economic port zone in Murmansk shows that the ambitious regional plans for port development are well founded and backed by federal authorities, Daniel Fjærtoft from the Norwegian Barents Secretariat says to BarentsObserver.

He believes the new port status will facilitate major investments in new industrial activities on the western side of the Kola Bay, an ambitious project long lobbied by Murmansk regional authorities.

The Russian Ministry of Economic Development recently announced a tender on the establishment of the port zones. In Northwest Russia, the Port of Murmansk and the Ust-Luga port outside Sankt Petersburg are the two likely winners of the new status.

The application deadline is set to 30 March, while the winners will be announced in late April.

Deputy Head of the Murmansk Department of Industry and Transport, Mr. Sergey Leus, confirms to journal Expert that the region’s application will be finished Mid-February and that the western shore of the Kola Bay is projected as the centrepiece of the zone. According to regional plans, the new port zone along the Kola Bay will include a new oil terminal, a coal terminal, as well as a container terminal.

The port development in Murmansk is administrated by the new Management Company of the Murmansk Transport Hub, a company with representatives of the Murmansk Trade Port, the Russian Railways, Rosneft, Rosmorport and the Murmansk regional administration.

Mr. Daniel Fjærtoft says that the development of economic port zones now is high on the Russian federal agenda and that the issue will be discussed in a meeting in the Northern Maritime Corridor project (NMC) in Sankt Petersburg next week.

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Port of Murmansk preparing for Arctic shipping boom BarentsObserver, 7 January 2008